Enough. It’s Time to Get MADD About Gun Violence

Remember MADD? Mothers Against Drunk Driving? Founded in 1980 by a woman whose child was killed by a drunk driver, MADD was a household name by the 90s. There were public service announcements and fliers, billboards and after school specials. Drunk driving was the cause of the decade, and it worked. By 1997, alcohol related deaths were down 20%, a drop attributed, in large part to MADDs education and lobbying efforts.

You’d be hard pressed to find someone today that supports driving drunk. After all, not only does it endanger the person behind the wheel, but also the passengers, the other drivers, and innocent bystanders. Driving drunk turns a car into a deadly weapon let loose on the masses. We tend to frown on weapons let loose on the masses. At least, we used to.

People. What in the hell is happening? And why are we not screaming in the streets?

Remember the shock of the shootings in US post offices in the 1990s, the origin of “going postal”? Who’d ever heard of such a thing? Today, what would we call it? “Going classrooom?” “Going movie theatre?” Going to hell in a hand basket?

While we’ve been arguing about illegal immigration, and gay marriage, and Planned Parenthood, an epidemic has broken out right under our noses. It’s time to wake up and face the facts. What facts?

505 CHILDREN have been killed by gun violence in the US, since January 1st. I got this number from gunviolencearchive.org, a database that gives the number killed, the number injured, and details about each incident. There were many, many incidents that involved one child dead and multiple injured – this is not a kid grabbing a gun by accident. I had to add up the deaths page by page, because there was no total number provided. I almost didn’t make it.

It takes about 15 minutes to buy a gun, including the paperwork and background check. It takes about 15DAYS to get a new patient appointment with a mental health provider. If you’re lucky.

It is impossible to kill someone with a gun if YOU DON’T HAVE A GUN.

I know what I sound like. I sound like one of those knee-jerk, anti-gun, low-gluten, almond-milk drinking, NPR-listening liberals. And there’s maybe a little truth there. But this issue has been surprisingly hard for me to get my head around.

I was raised in North Carolina. I’ve fired rifles into the air on New Year’s Eve. I learned to use a handgun when I was 8 years old. My father owns a small arsenal. My high-brow mother once jumped for joy upon unwrapping a Christmas pistol. I know all the slogans: If we outlaw guns, only outlaws will have guns. Guns don’t kill people, people kill people. I know all the pro-gun arguments: Most gun owners are responsible gun owners. The Founding Fathers included the 2nd Amendment to provide citizens a defense against a tyrannical government. When the economy collapses and people are starving in the streets, you’ll wish you had a gun to protect your last bag of rice…

But here’s the thing: The sudden collapse of the United States economy and social structure is, at best, an unlikely and far-flung possibility. However, the chance of another mass shooting in the next 24 hours is a statistical probability. The idea that an armed public could defend themselves against a tyrannical US government (however unlikely that is) with the government’s drones and tanks and missiles is laughable. As Australian comic Jim Jefferies says, “You’re bringing a gun to a drone fight.” And as far as responsibility is concerned: it pains me to say it, because I think guns are kinda cool, but choosing not to wield a deadly weapon trumps keeping a weapon locked in a safe any day.

I began writing this post thinking I was going to offer a nice, middle of the road plea to stop the sales of assault weapons, or as gun enthusiasts prefer: military style firearms (we’d hate to give an ugly weapon an ugly name). I like guns, after all. I like the Charles Wilder, go out and get some dinner, scare away the bad guy, protect your own, motif. It’s kinda sexy. It appeals to my Southern roots. But as I went hunting for a few statistics to round out my post, I became horrified. Suddenly my Second Amendment rights seemed less important. After all, I am the mother of five young children. I give up my own rights in deference to their needs Every.Single.Day. I have the right to drink as much wine as I can hold, pregnant or not, but I don’t, in order to protect my children’s health. I have the right to scream obscenities at the top of my lungs (thank you, First Amendment) but I don’t, in order to protect my children’s innocence. Why are my Second Amendment rights any more precious?

I hereby waive my Constitutional right to bear arms in favor of watching my children reach adulthood unmarred by bullets, or even, as fellow blogger Beth Woolsey recently shared in her post “Turns Out I Don’t Like Getting Shot At,” gunshots at a high school soccer game.

Until I wrote this post, I had NO IDEA that as many young Americans die by gun as by car in the United States. Did you hear that? Guns have overtaken drunk driving as a leading cause of death among kids.

I think it’s time for a new kind of MADD. A MADD that marches through the streets, through the channels of social media, through the corridors of Washington demanding that something change. Insisting that our children’s rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness are at least as important as someone’s right to buy guns at Walmart.

I don’t have a cute acronym.

Mothers Against Crazy People Getting Guns (MACPGG)?

Mothers For Mental Health Not Firearms (MFMHNF)?

How about Mothers Against Mass Shootings (MAMS)? Forget fliers. We could have tank tops.

Or better yet, we could march through town topless, our mams proudly exposed. Those terrifying bare breasts providing for, and protecting our babies like they’ve always done.

Agreed 100%. As unpopular as it may be in tennessee, I couldn’t agree more. The thing is–I think the people who think this way outnumber those who are all-pro-guns-all-the-time…even here in the south! However, they speak so loudly that the rest of us get drowned out. I actually heard someone say yesterday that gun control is a slippery slope to losing our right to worship as we please. What??!!?!?

In my opinion it’s all about money. Giant companies that make money selling dangerous weapons by convincing people that the right to own them, and be surrounded by them, is somehow equivalent to or more important than their safety. It’s so sad and weird.

Dear God,,,Buddha, every deity known. There is not one single argument which can minimize the significance of what you just read.
My only hope is that my daughter remain safe against the massive forces which makes this country the , War Lord, of the world.

I’m going to be in the minority here. To compare these shootings to driving while under the influence is inaccurate. While deaths occurred because of these individuals'(drunk drivers’) actions; it was not their INTENTION to kill anyone. They did not decide to go out and drink too much to see how many innocents they could murder (with their car), or how much pain they could cause an unknown parent(s) by targeting the most vulnerable members of our society. In these cases, stronger penalties and public shaming have made a real difference, but only because these people didn’t mean to hurt anyone in the first place. But crying “prohibition” and outlawing alcohol, or banning cars (the driver’s wouldn’t have been able to kill those innocent victims if they weren’t driving a car) might have solved the problem for the few, but would that have worked for the rest of us? Intention is everything! When Cecil the lion was shot by an American dentist, we didn’t blame the gun. We blamed the man who wielded it. We send our youngest and most vulnerable off to schools unprotected. They are gathered together like sheep without a shepherd..in the same place, at the same times, on the same days … at least real sheep have a sheep dog to guard against the wolves! It is interesting that the father of the shooter in Oregon blames guns and not his son; while the mother of one of the victims is for arming everyone so future shooters will be met with an equal response. The perpetrators of these crimes are not choosing places where they will be met with resistance (you don’t see them trying to storm a police station), but our unprotected schools. I believe that these individuals would have still have committed these crimes even if guns were illegal. Murder is still illegal. You can find out how to build a pipe bomb or a malotov cocktail on the internet. How can we protect ourselves from them? I agree that no citizen needs an assault weapon, and if I honestly believed that making guns illegal would stop these senseless murders, of course I would be all for it! I understand the feelings of helplessness, grief and anger (I feel it too!) these shootings cause. But like most “easy fixes” I don’t think gun control is the answer. The REAL answer is SO much harder …to create, implement, and enforce, without violating anyone’s rights. It’s going to take empathy, bravery, intelligence, and LOTS of money to help identify these people before they commit these terrible crimes. We need ways of finding and helping these individuals BEFORE they choose to take their own lives…and those of our children! Stop blaming inanimate objects for the things society should be taking responsibility for. I know that I am one of the few to feel this way, or maybe just one of the few who is willing to speak against the growing (but completely understandable) tide of hysteria that is sweeping our nation. But differing opinions, and intelligent debate are one of the things that makes this nation great.

JB,
I appreciate your well thought out response, and I agree that intelligent and respectful debate make this country great. If only we could have more of it! I think you misunderstood my reference to Mothers Against Drunk Driving. I wasn’t implying that shooting someone was even kind of similar to killing someone in a car. What I was driving at, and I may have missed the mark, is that this issue is one that mothers need to get involved in.

I’m not suggesting that all mothers would agree with my position on gun control, I’m sure there are many who would not. I do, however, think that this situation we find ourselves in, where mass shootings are a daily occurrence, is intolerable and untenable. I agree that there are MANY factors contributing to it. Our mental health system is pathetically inadequate, and though only a small number of shooters are considered “mentally ill” there can be no question that the vast majority of them are suffering from anger issues, at the VERY least. Our culture of violence makes killing someone seem trivial, and ordinary. I could go on and on. HOWEVER, and this is a big however, the one thing that every shooter has in common is easy assess to a gun, in many cases, an arsenal of guns.

I’m not advocating for the repeal of the second amendment. Though, I can’t promise I won’t get there someday. But I do think that gun violence has become a national health issue, and should be treated as such. We need research (which is being blocked by the gun lobby) we need implementation of more advanced safety features (which already exist) and yes, we need to reduce the number of guns in general. None of those things are “easy fixes”, but I believe they beat standing around being sad and frustrated about the state of our culture, hands down.

I don’t, by the way, blame the guns. I blame the legislators that allow just anyone to get just as many guns as their heart desires. There is a difference between owning a handgun, and owning 16 handguns as well as an arsenal of semi-automatic rifles. I also, predictably, disagree with the notion that arming more people is a solution. Teachers should teach, not engage in firefights with intruders. Saying more guns is the answer is akin to saying more bombs are the answer. We tried that in the 80s, and it didn’t work.

Unfortunately, I think this issue has been politicized in a way that makes pro-gun people defensive and creates an atmosphere of “I’ll show you how many guns I can get and where I can take them!” There are pictures of men walking through Target with rifles slung over their shoulders as though they are making some kind of statement about their rights. Some people are defending their rights at the expense of their common sense.

Ok. That’s all for now. I do appreciate you having the courage to voice a dissenting opinion. I think we can respectfully disagree. I do hope you watched the Jim Jefferies clip that was linked in the blog. It’s hilarious for one thing, and also very thought provoking. If you haven’t seen it, watch it, and me know what you think. I’d be interested in your opinion.